Broadband Brigade Members Promote Safety Training and Workforce Development

This month members of CWA’s Broadband Brigade have been attending conferences to promote safety training and workforce development initiatives.

CWA’s OSHA Authorized Construction Trainer Bob Gourdie from Local 13000 and Broadband Brigade Lead for Maryland Marcus Chambers from Local 2108 attended the NTCA/The Rural Broadband Association’s annual HR & Benefits Conference in National Harbor, Maryland this month to promote a new, nationwide OSHA-10 Construction training CWA is offering for free to broadband technicians involved in fiber network deployment. Many construction job sites require workers to have an OSHA-10 Construction card, making it a valuable asset for workers and employers. CWA’s OSHA-10 Construction class is targeted specifically for broadband and will be taught by CWA OSHA Authorized trainers who are experienced technicians.

CWA and NTCA entered a partnership through President Biden’s 2022 Talent Pipeline Challenge that committed our organizations to promote safety training and apprenticeship to rural broadband providers. This month’s conference was the first opportunity to put that partnership into practice.

Louisiana Brigade Lead Matt Wood from Local 3411 represented CWA on the “State of the Labor Pool Ahead of BEAD” panel at the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect 2023 Conference. He explained the high labor standards required for funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and the role union labor can play in meeting the need for trained, experienced workers to build high quality fiber networks.

Ohio Brigade Lead Joe Snyder from Local 4302 also attended the Fiber Connect conference. He met with state broadband officials from several states to discuss their plans for procuring and utilizing BEAD funds and connected with the Fiber Broadband Associations’ Workforce Development staff to discuss building out training and apprenticeship programs at the state and county levels.

“There is still much work to do,” said Snyder, “But it was incredible to see so many providers, operators, manufacturers, and industry professionals come together and discuss the common goal of conquering the digital divide.”

Members of CWA’s Broadband Brigade promoted safety training and workforce development at the Fiber Connect 2023 Conference (left) and the NTCA/The Rural Broadband Association’s annual HR & Benefits Conference (right).

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.